In our Sunday Mail newspaper here in Brisbane, Australia, there was an article on today’s cotton wool kids and all the safety rules and regulations and so on. I wrote a letter to the editor for possible publication next week (it got published), below:

I refer to the article on today’s cotton wool kids (SM, Feb 2). In the early 1960s in Melbourne, the 200 or so grade 3-6 boys at my school spent morning play, most of lunch break and afternoon play on a rough, uneven field of dirt and clumps of grass up to a foot long, about the size of a soccer field. There was footy (kick to kick for each grade), a cricket “pitch” in each corner, marbles, chasey, brandy, British bulldog, and general running around.

None of these were organised, other than by the kids. No teacher was ever on duty there. The area couldn’t be seen from any classroom or staff room. Very occasionally, a teacher would join in kick to kick. I can’t recall any serious dust-ups, abuse or injuries, although there were a few bloody scratches and bruises, and plenty of dirty knees, elbows and hands.

And of course nearly everyone walked or rode their bike to and from school. From my second day onwards as a five-year-old, I walked to school, until age 10 when I rode my bike.

Australian rules football is becoming increasingly popular in a number of other countries. This is mainly due to expatriate Australians living overseas as well as the media and others promoting the game internationally. Leagues exist in at least 25 countries in all continents.

The first overseas countries to play Australian football were New Zealand and South Africa by Victorian gold miners who had been attracted to these countries by gold rushes. By 1900, New Zealand had 115 clubs. At the Jubilee Australasian Football Carnival in 1908, the New Zealand team beat two Australian states, New South Wales and Queensland, although rugby was very much the predominant code in those states at the time. During World War I (1914-1918), Australian servicemen played the game in England, France, Belgium and Egypt. Overseas games then almost disappeared, with the notable exception of the annual match between England’s Oxford and Cambridge universities.

Gradually, other overseas countries began playing Australian rules football. Nauru, an island nation north-east of Australia, adopted it in the 1930s after Nauruan children returned from stints in Australian schools. It soon became the national sport. Nauru has 12 teams and a match can attract up to 3,000 spectators, or 30 per cent of the island’s population, making it the only country outside Australia where the game is a major spectator sport.

Australian servicemen played the game in a number of countries during World War II (1939-1945), including Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Egypt and Algiers. Servicemen played in Vietnam in the 1960s against local residents. The popularity of the game in Papua New Guinea has grown rapidly since the 1960s, with various international games and tours in the 1970s. They have 2,000 senior players in 46 clubs in seven competitions, and 8,000 juniors. The biggest crowd to see a game in Papua New Guinea was 5,000 at their 1999 grand final at Port Moresby. Matches from Australia are shown live on television. Their national team, the Mosquitoes, beat New Zealand in the 2008 Australian Football International Cup.

Overseas exhibition matches started in 1963, attracting large crowds and doing much to boost the sport’s popularity. The first match in Honolulu on 20 October drew a crowd of 1,500 to see Melbourne play Geelong. A game in San Francisco six days later attracted 3,500 people. The largest crowd to attend an Australian football match overseas was 32,789 at B.C. Place, Toronto where Melbourne played Sydney on 9 October 1987. Other good crowds to exhibition games include 25,000 in 1986 at Yokohama, 24,639 in 1989 at Toronto, and 18,884 in 2005 at London. Other countries to host these games have been India, Singapore, Greece, New Zealand, South Africa, and United Arab Emirates. The matches resulted in leagues being formed in many of these countries.

Australian rules football in neighboring New Zealand was revived in 1974. A national team, the Falcons, was formed in 1995 and has performed well in international competitions. About 600 senior players compete in four leagues, while junior participation has exploded to 16,000. Four exhibition matches between 1991 and 2001 attracted an average of about 9,000 spectators. Live coverage in New Zealand of Australian Football League (AFL) matches started in 2006.

Competitions started in Japan, England, Denmark and Canada in the 1980s. Australian football in Japan goes back to 1910 when it was played in four high schools. Interest was revived in the late 1980s after two exhibition matches. Japan has four leagues, 15 clubs and 600 adult players, with over 80 per cent being Japanese nationals. In England, the game had been played by Australian expatriates, servicemen and visiting teams since about 1870. It now has 600 senior players in 20 clubs, and 3,000 juniors. Local grand finals attract up to 1,500 people. English fans see three live matches from Australia a week. Canada had more than 500 seniors and 300 juniors in 21 clubs in 2007, with participation up 70 cent on 2006 and 95 per cent on 2005. Live matches from Australia are seen on television.

In the 1990s, Australian football leagues commenced in Sweden, Germany, the United States, Argentina, Spain, Samoa, South Africa, and some south-east Asian countries. The United States has 2,000 registered adult players in 28 clubs in several leagues, with participation more than doubling in two years. Most players are American. The largest crowd to see an Australian football match in the Unites States was 14,787 at Portland in 1990. Americans see regular matches from Australia on television. South Africa has 2,000 adult players and 4,000 juniors in 100 clubs. An exhibition match at Cape Town in 1998 attracted more than 10,000 spectators.

Since 2000, league competition has begun in Ireland, Tonga, Scotland, France, China, Pakistan, Indonesia, Catalonia, Croatia, Norway, Bermuda and East Timor. Most players in Indonesia, China and Pakistan are nationals. In China, while only 70 adults play, 9,000 juniors attended clinics and 18 schools added Australian football as a sport. Popularity of the game is Ireland has been boosted by the annual series of hybrid rules games between the Australian national team and the Irish Gaelic football national team since 1967, often bringing in crowds of over 20,000 in both Ireland and Australia.

Other international competitions include the Arafura Games which are an international sporting event held in Darwin and have included Australian football matches since 1995. The Australian Football International Cup has been held in Victoria every three years since 2002 between overseas countries. In 2008, 16 nations competed.

Junior development and competitions in Australian football are conducted in a number of countries, including Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, South Africa, England, Denmark, United States, Canada, Nauru, Tonga and Samoa. The Barassi International Australian Football Youth Tournament began in 1998 and is held in Canberra with countries such as New Zealand, South Africa, United States, Denmark, Nauru and Samoa competing.

Potential barriers to the spread of Australian football in other countries are several. The game is played on a large oval field that also usually serves as a cricket ground in summer. These grounds are up to twice as long as a soccer, rugby or gridiron field and suitable venues can be hard to find in many countries. A team has 18 players on the field at any one time, more than other football codes. A successful compromise to these problems has been nine-a-side games on soccer and rugby grounds. Another issue is that other football codes are firmly entrenched in most countries and people can be reluctant to support a code they know little or nothing about.

Despite these hurdles, the number of Australian football players in other countries increased from 16,000 in 2006 to about 35,000 in 2007, although none play professionally. While participation has increased rapidly in recent years, the game remains a major sport in Australia only, with 600,000 registered players. This may change in the years ahead, with international competitions, junior programs, and media coverage expanding all the time.

Australian football had its origins in Melbourne, the capital of the then fledgling colony of Victoria, in the late 1850s. At the time, the city played no soccer or rugby. Indeed, the two codes hadn’t officially separated from each other in England or anywhere else. Football had few set rules. This was the case in America too where gridiron wasn’t formalized until 1869.

In England, folk or mob football had been played sporadically in open spaces since Medieval times. These were often brutal affairs with few rules. In the early 19th century, certain English schools started to adapt the game. By mid century, football was played at a number of public schools. Those such as Eton and Harrow restricted their games to kicking the ball, whereas others like Rugby and Marlborough mainly handled the ball. The rules were peculiar to each institution and the limitations of the playing grounds. Melbourne’s population grew rapidly in the 1850s due to a gold rush and many of the city’s young men had played football of some sort at school in England. But football hadn’t made the transition from a school sport to a game for young men.

It was against this background that publican Tom Wills wrote a letter to sports newspaper “Bell’s Life in Victoria & Sporting Chronicle” on 10 July 1858 suggesting that cricketers play football in winter to keep fit. A practice session was arranged at Richmond Paddock near Melbourne Cricket Ground on 31 July. Wills provided a football, a rare item in those days. A large number of players turned up but many of them had been used to different rules or lack of rules and the session ended in chaos and fighting.

Another match had been organized on the same day between Melbourne Grammar School and some men from St Kilda, a southern suburb, playing as the St Kilda Club. Rules were laid out which emphasized carrying the ball instead of kicking it. But the men were used to football played in the Eton style where the ball was always kicked and never handled. A fight broke out and the game was abandoned.

A week later, Melbourne Grammar took on Scotch College, with some oval balls from Rugby School that had arrived by ship. They probably used at least some of the Rugby rules. The match was played over three days: 7 and 21 August and 4 September. Other games were organized by cricketers. Players soon realized that the rules needed standardizing. But the cricket season had started and nothing more was done until the following year.

Melbourne Football Club was established on 14 May 1859. A committee was formed of Tom Wills and three other club members to discuss and draft playing rules. Three days later on 17 May, they met in his Parade Hotel. William Hammersley, a noted athlete, worked for “Bell’s Life in Victoria” and had studied at England’s Cambridge University where an early soccer-type game was played between colleges and houses. James Thompson worked for the “Argus” newspaper and had also attended Cambridge. Thomas Smith was from Ireland, where the ball was usually handled, and taught at Scotch College. Wills had attended Rugby School. Thus two of the men had played a kicking game and two were more used to carrying the ball. All four were cricketers, with Wills regarded as the best in the colony.

Wills thought that Rugby School rules should be adopted but the others thought they were too complex. They looked at “Cambridge Rules”, which Hammersley and Thompson had helped formulate in 1848, as well as those of Eton, Harrow and Winchester schools. They wanted something simple with no hacking (kicking an opponent in the shins) or black eyes.

They came up with a set of ten rules. These included the size of the playing field, tossing a coin for choice of end, and defining a goal as a kick that sent the ball between two goal posts without it touching the posts or another player. If a player caught the ball from a kick, it was a “mark” and he was awarded a free kick. This rule was adapted from variations of it at Rugby, Harrow, Winchester and Cambridge. The ball could also be handled when it had only bounced once after a kick, but it couldn’t be picked up off the ground and wasn’t to be thrown. This rule was a compromise between the Rugby type handling game and Eton style kicking game. Pushing and tripping were allowed but no hacking. There was no offside rule. Overall, the rules had more in common with rugby than soccer.

The first game or games of Australian rules football (or more correctly at the time, Melbourne rules football) probably took place on the following Saturday, 21 May 1859.

While English school football was the biggest influence on the origin of Australian football, other possible factors were many. Matches in the goldfields areas north-west of Melbourne may have been played as early as 1853 with similar rules but evidence is anecdotal. At Geelong, 50 miles south-west of Melbourne, football was played to a set of rules, since lost, as early as 1856. Irish football may have been a contributor, given one of the committee, Smith, was from Ireland. There are similarities with Gaelic football but its rules weren’t set down until 1885. Local Aborigines played a game called “marngrook”, where a ball made of possum skin was dropped from a held position and kicked. The game included jumping high off the ground to catch the ball. Further, the dry winter and hard grounds of 1858 are thought to have had some influence on the city’s football rules, as a major purpose of the game was to keep cricketers fit in the off-season and the committee wanted to avoid too many heavy falls.

The 1859 “Melbourne Rules” were promoted by Thompson in the “Argus”. Further refinements to the rules took place in 1860, and in 1866 they were redrafted and became the “Victorian Rules”. Major changes included the requirement for a player to bounce the ball every 10 or 20 yards when running with it, umpires to officiate rather than the captains, time limits for matches, and behind posts. The popularity of the game soon spread and by 1890, Australasian Rules were put in place.

In contrast to the single Australian game, English football diverged in two directions: the kicking game became soccer in 1863 and the handling game became rugby in 1871. If Melbourne hadn’t started playing football for another decade or two, the city would have very likely taken up soccer or rugby rather than inventing a unique game called Australian football. The sport is still evolving today.

I wrote and posted this article to Bubblews writing site, now gone, a couple of years ago …

It’s 50 years [now 52] since the Beatles toured Australia. They had taken the UK by storm and then the US. In June 1964, it was Australia’s turn. We’d never seen anything like it. Crowds were huge. I was 11 and rode my bike 10 miles to downturn Melbourne but couldn’t get within three blocks of their hotel where they stood on the balcony. In Adelaide, 300,000 people lined the streets between the airport and downtown, half the city’s population.

At school, we walked around the schoolyard singing Beatles’ songs. We combed our hair in the Beatles’ style, straight down over the forehead, with a wave at the end. We avoided the ghastly black plastic Beatle wigs though, on sale at local department stores for two shillings and sixpence or 25 cents. Everyone had their favourite Beatle. Ringo probably led the way, followed by Paul, John and George. They had wide appeal. Even my grandmother liked them.

If a new Beatles song was due to be released, radio stations would announce that it would be first heard at eight o’clock Thursday night, or whenever. You made sure you were turned in to hear it, because you knew it would have a different sound and rhythm to anything you’d heard before. Every song had a fresh, new sound: I Want to Hold Your Hand, Yesterday, All My Loving, Day Tripper, Eleanor Rigby, to name just a few.

The world had never seen anything like it – four mop-top lads from previously unheralded Liverpool took the world by storm with a string of hits. In the US, they filled the top five positions on the hit parade, all at once! I recall a Melbourne radio station’s top 40 had the Beatles filling the first six spots.

The Beatles were a 1960s music and cultural phenomenon that shook the establishment to its core. Old-fashioned teachers, businessmen and politicians, who still supported putting babies born out of wedlock into orphanages, warned us of the dangers. “Beatles” gets 46 million Google hits [now 98 million] and the band hasn’t been around for well over four decades. It’s a legacy that speaks for itself.

The band can be traced back to 1957 when schoolboy John Lennon formed a skiffle band called the Quarrymen. Paul McCartney joined it later that year and George Harrison in 1958. Ringo Starr didn’t come on board until 1962. The band had various names before they became the Beatles: Johnny and the Moondogs, Long John and the Beatles, the Silver Beetles, the Beatles, Silver Beats, Silver Beatles, and finally simplicity won the day and they were called the Beatles again.

Simplicity was the hallmark of their songs too. There never seemed to be a superfluous note or word in any of them. It was good tight pop music. Their first recording contract was worth a penny per single sold, or a farthing for each band member. Two hit singles came in late 1962: Love Me Do and Please Please Me. The hits kept coming in 1963 and by 1964 they had conquered America, and Australia. By the late 1960s, they weren’t running out of good songs.

Early on, the term Beatlemania was coined and the level of hysteria at airports, hotels and concerts was something that had never been seen before. Incessant screaming at concerts by thousands of teenage girls could completely drown out the music. Their concerts only lasted half an hour (plus a support act) but that was the norm back then.

The Beatles were the most successful, acclaimed, innovative and influential band in popular music. Their music is timeless and is still popular after 50 years, including among the younger generations. Most polls of the best music act of all time put the Beatles at the top of the pile. They had more than 40 number one records in the United Kingdom and, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, the Beatles have sold more music units in the United States than anyone else with 177 million.

Here are some essential facts about Australia for those who live in the country, intend to move there or are thinking of moving there, or want to visit the country. The facts presented here are divided into several broad categories: geography, climate, history, government, the people, and the economy.

Geography

Australia is located to the south of eastern Asia, between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world’s sixth largest country after Russia, Canada, the United States, China, and Brazil, with a land area of nearly three million square miles. The country is entirely surrounded by sea, has over 21,000 miles of coastline, and is usually regarded as a continent. It is the oldest, flattest, and driest country. Most of Australia is desert or semi-desert, although forests cover eighteen per cent of the country. Due to Australia’s age, climatic extremes, and isolation, much of the country’s fauna and flora is unique. More than four-fifths of its mammals and plants and nearly half of its birds are not found elsewhere.

The largest geographical feature is the Western Shield, basically the desert area covering much of Western Australia, Northern Territory, and South Australia. To its east is the Great Artesian Basin, extending through much of Queensland and New South Wales. The Great Dividing Range runs along the eastern side of the country from northern Queensland to Tasmania. Australia’s highest point, Mount Kosciusko, at 7,310 feet, is part of the range. The 1,200 mile long Great Barrier Reef lies off the Queensland coast.

The name “Australia” comes from the Latin “australis”, which means “southern”. Stories of a great southern land go back to Roman days, where people thought that something had to exist down there in order to balance the world. “Australia” was first used in the English language in 1625. The name wasn’t commonly used until the 1810s. In 1824, the British government declared that the continent should be called Australia.

Climate

Australia’s large size and latitudinal span means it has a wide variety of climatic conditions, including tropical, temperate, alpine and arid. Most of Western Australia, South Australia, and Northern Territory, and a large part of New South Wales and Queensland, is desert or semi-arid. The desert areas receive less than ten inches of rain a year, while the semi-arid areas receive 10-20 inches. Temperatures can reach 110-120 degrees by day in summer, but can fall below 30 degrees on winter nights in some places.

A tropical climate can be found along the northern and north-eastern coastal areas. Rainforests dominate these regions, where average rainfall is as high as 160 inches a year. Most of the rain falls in the summer months. These areas can be quite hot, with summer average maximums of up to 95 degrees. The tropical belt is often subject to cyclones, flooding, and drought.

The temperate zone extends in a band from inland of Brisbane, south through New South Wales, most of Victoria, all of Tasmania, and part of South Australia. Most of Australia’s major cities are located in this area. Summers are warm and winters mild. Moderate levels of rainfall are spread throughout the year. Weather extremes can be experienced in this region, including temperatures over 100 degrees, drought and flooding. Bush fires are a hazard in this region.

A small area of south-east New South Wales is regarded as having an alpine climate. Temperatures in this mountainous area frequently fall to 10-20 degrees overnight in winter. Good snowfalls suitable for skiing are usually received in the colder months.

History

The Australian Aborigines migrated to the continent from India and south-east Asia up to 50,000 years ago, when Australia and Asia were more or less linked by land bridges. In pre-European times, they were hunter-gatherers living in small groups of 25-50 people. At the time of European settlement, an estimated 300,000 Aborigines lived in all parts of Australia.

The first European sighting of Australia was by Dutchman Willem Janszoon, who saw Cape York Peninsula in the country’s north-east in 1606. Other early explorers included Dutch navigator Abel Tasman, who chartered the Tasmanian coastline in 1642, and William Dampier from England, who mapped the western and north-western coasts. The best known explorer was Englishman Captain James Cook, who tracked the east coast of Australia in 1770 and claimed it for England.

European settlement of Australia started in 1788 when a convict colony was set up at Port Jackson, where Sydney now stands. Another convict colony was established along Tasmania’s Derwent River in 1803, which became Hobart. The first free settlers came to Australia in the 1790s. Over the coming decades, they spread to most parts of the continent. Other colonies were set up at Brisbane in 1824, Perth in 1829, Melbourne in 1835, and Adelaide in 1836. The last two didn’t use convict labour. Convicts continued to be brought to Australia until 1840 in New South Wales, 1853 in Tasmania, and 1868 in Western Australia.

Gold was discovered in Victoria and New South Wales in the 1850s, Queensland from the 1860s and Western Australia in the 1890s. People came in their hundreds of thousands to seek their fortune. Victoria’s population exploded from 77,000 to 540,000 in two years from 1851 to 1853. The population of Australia grew from 430,000 in 1851 to 1.7 million in 1871.

The six states of the continent became a country, the Commonwealth of Australia, on 1 January 1901, after a majority of voters in a majority of states voted that the previously separate colonies unite as one. New social legislation before World War I included women getting the vote in 1902, a basic wage in 1906, age and invalid pensions in 1909 and 1910 respectively, free and compulsory education around 1910, and a maternity allowance in 1912.

Australia sent 330,000 troops to Europe during World War I (1914-1918) to fight with the British. However, conscription was defeated in two referendums. In World War II (1939-1945), Australian troops fought in the Middle East from 1940 to 1942, and in the Pacific region from 1942 after Japan entered the war. Australia ended most of its constitutional links with the United Kingdom in 1942.

Aboriginal people were given the vote in 1967 after a referendum in which over ninety per cent of Australia’s population supported the move. The nation’s White Australia Policy, which was one of the Commonwealth’s first pieces of legislation in 1901, was finally wound back and abolished in 1973.

Remaining constitutional ties with the United Kingdom were cut with the introduction of the Australia Act in 1986. A referendum in 1999 rejected a move for Australia to become a republic by less than five per cent of the vote.

Government

Initially, the Australian colonies were under British rule. Self-government was achieved in 1850 with Britain passing the Australian Colonies Government Act. This gave the colonies considerable independence, including the right to amend their constitutions and impose tariffs.

Since 1901, Australia has been a constitutional democracy. The federal government is divided into three branches: the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. The legislator is the Commonwealth Parliament, which comprises the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Queen. The executive consists of the prime minister and the other federal ministers. The judiciary is the federal courts, including the High Court of Australia.

The House of Representatives or lower house has 150 seats spread evenly around Australia on a population basis, within tolerances. The Senate or upper house has 76 senators, with each state having twelve and each territory having two. An election on 24 November 2007 saw the Labor Party swept to victory over the Liberal-National Coalition, with Kevin Rudd becoming prime minister. Unlike in some countries, voting is compulsory in Australia.

Section 51 of the Australian Constitution sets out the powers of the federal government. These include trade and commerce with other countries, external affairs, income tax, defence, currency, immigration, marriage and divorce, bankruptcy, and pensions, among others. Any area not in the Constitution rests with the states and territories, which includes hospitals, education, public transport, roads, police, state courts, and local government.

Australia has six states, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania, and two main territories, Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory. The national capital is Canberra, within the ACT. There are also a number of minor internal and external territories. Australia has 673 local councils in charge of planning, local roads and traffic, rubbish collection, water, local laws and regulations, and so on.

People

The population of Australia in early 2008 was about 21 million. This includes around ninety per cent who originated from Europe, six per cent from Asia, and over two per cent who are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. About 14 million Australians were born in the country. Other main countries of birth are England, New Zealand, China, Italy, and Vietnam.

Australia has always operated a large migration program. Since the end of Word War II, around seven million migrants have arrived in Australia. Most immigration in the post-war years was from the United Kingdom and Europe. In more recent decades, the emphasis has shifted to Asian countries. Migrants come to Australia as skilled workers, business people, family members of previous migrants, and refugees.

More than 85 per cent of Australians live in urban areas. The major cities and their populations are Sydney (4.3 million), Melbourne (3.7 million), Brisbane (1.8 million), Perth (1.5 million), Adelaide (1.1 million), Gold Coast (520,000), Newcastle (500,000), Canberra (330,000), Geelong (210,000), Hobart (205,000), Wollongong (190,000), and Townsville (165,000). Most of Australia’s population lives in an arc from Brisbane to Adelaide.

The official language of Australian is English. About eighty per cent of people speak only English. The next major languages are Chinese (spoken by 2.3 per cent of the population), Italian (1.6 per cent), Greek (1.3 per cent), and Arabic (1.2 per cent). Australian Aboriginal languages are the main language for around 50,000 people or 0.25 per cent of the population. About 260 Aboriginal languages were spoken throughout Australia before white settlement. Only about seventy survive, with about fifty of these in danger of disappearing.

Australians are free to choose their religion, and also whether to have one at all. About 26 per cent are Catholic and nineteen per cent are Anglican. There are many smaller Christian religions. The main non-Christian religion is Islam, with about 340,000 Muslims living in Australia, or nearly two per cent of the population. There are smaller numbers of Buddhists, Hindus, and Jews. At the 2006 census, nineteen per cent of people didn’t have a religion, while twelve per cent chose not to state their religion.

Attendance at school is compulsory from age six to fifteen. Among adults, 99 per cent are literate. More than half of the population has a vocational or tertiary qualification. Australia has 38 universities, and a technical and further education system. The country has the highest ratio of international to local tertiary students in the world.

Three-quarters of the population live in a separate house, with a further nine per cent living in a semi-detached or terrace house or townhouse, and fourteen per cent live in a flat, unit or apartment.

Economy

Australia has a market economy with a large private sector and relatively small government sector. Traditionally, the major industries were agriculture, mining, and manufacturing. However, over eighty per cent of the labour force now work in services, such as retail trade, banking, education, tourism, and government services. Agriculture and mining are still important as they account for 65 per cent of exports.

Gross domestic product was $645 billion in 2006, ranking Australia seventeenth in terms of economic output. Growth is quite strong at about four per cent per annum. Inflation is relatively low at around three per cent and unemployment is about four per cent, down from double digits only a decade ago.

Australia has a goods and services tax of ten per cent. Residents pay no income tax on the first $6,000 of annual personal income, and then fifteen cents in the dollar up to $30,000, then thirty cents up to $75,000, then forty cents up to $150,000, and then 45 cents for amounts above $150,000. A Medicare levy of 1.5 per cent is added to these rates. State taxes include stamp duty, land tax, and payroll tax. Local governments charge a rate on property owners.

Australia’s currency was converted from pounds to a decimal system using dollars on 14 February 1966. Coins range in value from five cents to two dollars, and notes from five dollars to 100 dollars. The exchange rate with the US dollar has hovered around 90 to 95 cents in the early months of 2008.

All in all, Australia is a great place to live, with a good climate, prosperous economy, and few of the tensions that exist in many parts of the world. Australia came sixth in the Economist’s quality of life index in 2005 and third in the United Nations’ Human Development Index in 2007.

Australia is a vast country with a large number of places worth seeing. These range from world class cities with sights and activities for everyone, to national parks and beaches among the most beautiful in the world. I have selected five places that shouldn’t be missed on a trip to Australia.

Gold Coast

The world famous Gold Coast is in south-east Queensland, about an hour’s drive south of Brisbane, the state’s capital city. Halfway up Australia’s east coast, the subtropical climate means you can soak up the sun, surf and sand at any time of year.

Popular theme parks include Dreamworld, Movieworld, Seaworld, Wet’n’Wild, and Currumbin Sanctuary. I have been to them all and can recommend a visit to each one. Ripley’s Believe It or Not in the middle of Surfers Paradise is well worth a visit. It’s a fascinating place. Check out the views from Q1, the world’s tallest residential tower when it was built in 2005 and now sixth tallest.

With a resident population of well over half a million, the Gold Coast has many hundreds of restaurants to choose from, and dozens of nightclubs provide plenty of entertainment.

The southern end of the Gold Coast is probably more picturesque, with its headlands and vast expanses of sand. Look out for the dolphins at the mouth of the Tweed River around high tide. My wife and I have walked around this area a number of times.

You might like to time your visit to the Gold Coast to coincide with one of the major events held each year. There’s the Gold Coast Indy race in October (now the Gold Coast 600), the Magic Millions horseracing carnival in January, and for those who like 1950s and 1960s music and cars, don’t miss the Wintersun Festival in June.

If you’re into partying, or quiet walks along the beach, the Gold Coast is for you.

Sydney

A visit to Australia wouldn’t be complete without seeing Sydney, one of the great harbour cities of the world. Apart from numerous restaurants and nightclubs, things to see include the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, Hyde Park, the Domain, the Chinese Garden of Friendship, and various museums and art galleries.

For those who like history, visit the Rocks for a fascinating tour of buildings dating back to Sydney’s convict era in the early nineteenth century. It’s part of the downtown area. Whenever I visit Sydney, I like to walk around this locality.

Popular events are the Sydney Festival of arts, dance and music each January, the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in February, and the Sydney Film Festival in June.

The traffic in the downtown area can get a bit heavy and parking is scarce and expensive, so a good spot to stay is Manly, next to the ocean. From there, it’s an easy 20 minute ferry ride across the harbour to the central city area. I have stayed at Manly twice, once with my wife and once while at a conference with work. Lovely beach.

I’ve visited Sydney at least a dozen times and always enjoy it. My first trip to Sydney was with my family when about 10. A great day trip was a visit to the Jenolan Caves about 100 miles to the west.

Melbourne

A great place to visit is Melbourne, often called Australia’s sporting and cultural capital. It is home to the Melbourne Cup, the horse race that stops a nation on the first Tuesday in November. The state of Victoria has a public holiday on this day, while people in other states tend to stop what they are doing and find the nearest television or radio when the race is on.

Experience the thrills and spills of that great Aussie game, Australian Football. Finals matches in September can attract crowds of 100,000 people. Many of the matches are played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, one of the great stadiums of the world.

Take in the views of Melbourne and Port Phillip Bay from the top of the 91 storey Eureka Tower. It was the second highest residential building in the world when built in 2006, although it has since been overtaken by about a dozen other buildings, mainly in Dubai.

The Crown Casino, Melbourne Aquarium, the Shrine of Remembrance, and the Docklands precinct are all fascinating spots to visit. And don’t forget the arts centres, museums and art galleries.

Not to be missed events in Melbourne include the Comedy Festival in March-April, the Arts Festival in October, and of course the Australian Football grand final and the Melbourne Cup.

I grew up in Melbourne about 100 yards from the bay. There are some lovely beaches right the way down its eastern side. I’m in Brisbane now and don’t get down there all that often as it is over 1000 miles away. I flew down recently for a school reunion and to catch up with a few other old friends.

Great Ocean Road

One of the world’s most picturesque drives is Victoria’s Great Ocean Road, south-west of Melbourne. It runs for about 150 miles from Torquay, which is about 60 miles from Melbourne, and passes through some lovely seaside resorts. I’ve been there a number of times, though not since 1998 as I now live over 1000 miles from this area.

The Great Ocean Road was built in the 1920s by 3,000 returned servicemen from World War I. It hugs the coastline and is often carved into steep coastal mountains. There are many lookout points, as well as bush and beach walks along the way. In 2004, the Great Ocean Walk opened, joining 60 miles of walking tracks from Apollo Bay to the Twelve Apostles.

Make sure you see the Twelve Apostles, regarded as one of the world’s most scenic coastal sites. Erosion has formed a series of rock formations of limestone and sandstone 150 feet or more in height in the shallows. But be quick. There are actually only eight apostles left after one collapsed in 2005.

Accommodation is offered at various towns along the route. There are guided tours, helicopter rides and plenty of touristy things.

Central Australia

This is an area that covers the southern part of the Northern Territory. I went there on a school trip back in the late 1960s.

Central Australia has a number of icons significant to Aboriginal culture, such as Uluru (or Ayers Rock, as it was known back when I was there), and various cave paintings. Uluru is one of the main attractions, 280 miles south-west of Alice Springs (population 25,000), the only town of any size in this vast desert region.

Allow an hour for the steep climb to the top of the 1,140 foot high sandstone rock, although climbing is discouraged these days, not so much because of safety concerns but due to local Aboriginal beliefs. I think I scaled it easily in about 20 minutes, but I was 16! A six mile walk will get you right around its perimeter. It changes colour at different times of the day and is quite spectacular at sunset and sunrise.

The only accommodation when I was there were a couple of camping grounds / caravan parks, and some cabins. I think the nearest asphalt road was in Alice Springs. Now there are luxury hotels, including five-star, and made roads.

Many animals unique to Australia proliferate in the centre, including wallabies, dingoes and emus. As it’s so far away from major cities, the night sky is filled with more stars than just about anywhere else in the world.

Team rivalries in Australian rules football are the matches between certain clubs in the country’s premier competition, the Australian Football League (AFL), which are sure to draw large crowds regardless of team positions on the premiership ladder. Due to the popularity of these matches, the AFL has arranged a Rivalry Round each year between traditional rival teams as a way of generating extra publicity for these matches. The biggest rivalries include neighbouring teams within Melbourne, and in Adelaide and Perth, as well as ‘blockbuster’ matches between the four leading Victorian clubs of Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon and Richmond.

Perhaps the biggest single rivalry and one that goes back to the nineteenth century is that of blue collar Collingwood versus white collar Carlton, two neighbouring inner suburbs in Melbourne. Both teams have been very successful over the years, with Carlton winning the competition 16 times (equal first with Essendon) and Collingwood 15 times. Their matches frequently attract 60,000-80,000 spectators, and more in a Grand Final. They have fought some memorable Grand Finals, such as in 1970 when Carlton fought back from a 44 point deficit to win. Carlton has won five of the six Grand Finals between the teams and more games than Collingwood overall.

Another big AFL rivalry is between Carlton and Essendon, who jointly lead in the number of Grand Final victories with 16 each. Melbourne and Collingwood traditionally draw large crowds to their matches. It was Collingwood who prevented Melbourne from winning its fourth consecutive premiership in 1958, a feat that has only been achieved by Collingwood itself in 1927-1930. Richmond and Collingwood played in five Grand Finals from 1919 to 1929. In the 1970s and 1980s, the two teams were involved in a bidding war for players.

There is a great rivalry between Essendon and Hawthorn. These teams played in the Grand Final in three consecutive years in the 1980s. In the Preliminary Final between these clubs in 2001, a huge brawl erupted at half-time and a number of Hawthorn players were suspended. Richmond and Carlton have been intense rivals over the years, contesting several Grand Finals from 1969 to 1982. Strong rivalry between Essendon and Collingwood goes back to early last century when they played in Grand Finals in 1901, 1902 and 1911. They play each other on Anzac Day each year, a holiday in Australia to commemorative the efforts of its forces in major wars.

Some of the biggest rivalries and most fiercely contested matches in the AFL are between non-Victorian clubs in the same state, including games between West Coast and Fremantle in Western Australia and Adelaide and Port Adelaide in South Australia. These games are promoted as ‘local derbies’. West Coast beat Fremantle in their first nine matches. After that, Fremantle was able to reverse the result, winning six of the next seven encounters. Just as intense and noisy are the battles between Adelaide and Port Adelaide, with the honours fairly even. A local derby of sorts that is always keenly fought is between Sydney and Brisbane, brought about by the traditional rivalry between the states of which these cities are the capitals: New South Wales and Queensland.

The most prominent recent rivalry is arguably between West Coast and Sydney. They met six times from September 2005 to March 2007, including in two Qualifying Finals and the two Grand Finals, with the winning margin being 4, 4, 2, 1, 1 and 1 point, a very small difference in a game where team scores of over 100 points are common. Similarly, many close matches have been fought between Adelaide and Collingwood. Another of the biggest rivalries is between Port Adelaide and Collingwood, which probably stems from the fact that Port were known as the Magpies (as are Collingwood) in the local Adelaide competition where they played from 1870 to 1996.

One of the biggest past rivalries involved St Kilda and South Melbourne. Both teams were based in the inner southern suburbs of Melbourne. They played for the ‘Lake Trophy’, named after a lake in the same area, Albert Park Lake. St Kilda still plays in the AFL, but South Melbourne relocated to Sydney in 1982 for financial reasons and as a stepping stone towards a national competition. Another major past rivalry was between Collingwood and Fitzroy, neighbours in the inner north of Melbourne. Fitzroy merged into the Brisbane club in 1997 and the rivalry has continued, now between Collingwood and Brisbane.

A couple of new sets of rivalries have emerged with the entry into the AFL of a Gold Coast team in 2011 and Greater Western Sydney in 2012. Already there have been some tough local derby battles between Brisbane and Queensland’s second team 50 miles or 80 kilometres down the road and between Sydney and the new team in that city’s western suburbs.

Ned Kelly is one of the most famous bushrangers in 19th century Australia. He is best known for constantly defying colonial authorities and has since gained folk hero status in some circles. He always denied he did wrong and claimed he and his family were the victims of ongoing police harassment. His life has been portrayed in film, television, literature, poetry and song.

Edward “Ned” Kelly was born at Beveridge, a small town 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Melbourne in the colony of Victoria, Australia, sometime between mid 1854 and mid 1855. He was the first son of John “Red” Kelly and Ellen Quinn. Kelly Senior was from Ireland and had stolen some pigs in the early 1840s, for which he was sentenced to transportation for seven years to Tasmania. He moved to Victoria in 1848 and worked on James Quinn’s farm at Beveridge. At age 30, he married Quinn’s 18 year old daughter Ellen.

They had seven children that survived past infancy: Annie, Ned, Margaret, James, Daniel, Kate and Grace. Young Ned was baptised by Charles O’Hea, a Catholic priest who would later minister to Kelly before his hanging in 1880. Ned received some basic schooling and is credited with saving his friend Richard Shelton from drowning. The boy’s family gave him a green sash, a garment he probably wore often, including under his armour on the day of his shoot-out with police in 1880.

Kelly Senior was frequently suspected of horse or cattle stealing but was never caught. One day he was arrested for killing and skinning a neighbour’s calf. He was found guilty of removing the branding mark from the animal’s skin and was fined $50. But Red had no money and served six months with hard labour at nearby Kilmore gaol. His sentence and treatment by police took their toll on him and this impacted on young Ned who was at an impressionable age. Red died in 1866 when Ned was aged just 11 years. The Kelly family moved to a 32 hectare (80 acre) farm near Greta, just south of Wangaratta in north-east Victoria. This area is still known as Kelly country.

At age 14 years in 1869, Ned Kelly was arrested on a charge of assaulting Ah Fook, a Chinese pig farmer. Ah Fook claimed Ned had robbed him but Ned said the altercation was the result of a row between his sister Annie and Ah Fook. Ned was detained for seven days. The charges were dismissed, but Ned was regarded as a “juvenile bushranger” by police, despite the term bushranger usually referring to runaway convicts who lived in the bush to avoid the authorities.

In 1870, Kelly was arrested as an accomplice to known bushranger Harry Power. Ned was held for a month but was then released as no evidence was produced. It is unsure whether the episode was an instance of Kelly suffering police harassment or if his relatives intimidated witnesses to prevent them talking about the charge. Only a year later, he was arrested again, this time for assaulting hawker Jeremiah McCormack and for playing a part in sending a parcel with an indecent note and a calf’s testicles to the man’s wife. Kelly served six months’ hard labour as a result.

Soon after his release, a 16 year old Kelly was riding a horse he was looking after for Isaiah “Wild” Wright. He had found it after Wright lost it several days earlier. But the horse was listed as stolen and a police constable attempted to arrest Kelly over the matter. Ned resisted and the policeman tried to shoot him. Kelly overpowered him but was later arrested. Kelly said he was unaware the horse had been stolen by Wright in the first place. Despite this, Kelly received three years with hard labour. When he got out in 1874, legend has it that he beat Wright in a 20 round bare-knuckled boxing match.

Meanwhile, Ned’s younger brothers Jim and Dan were arrested for riding a horse that was not theirs, although it turned out that a farmer had lent it to them. Later, Jim Kelly was charged with cattle rustling, but claimed he thought the stock belonged to his employer. He was gaoled for five years. Ned Kelly continued to get into trouble for things like drunkenness and receiving stolen horses. He was also known to be involved in cattle rustling with his brother Dan and their step-father George King, a Californian who had married Ellen. They had three more children.

One day in 1878, policeman Alexander Fitzpatrick came to the farm to question Dan about a cattle stealing incident. After making a pass at Kelly’s sister Kate, who was not quite 15, Fitzpatrick was set upon by Ellen with a coal shovel, and other family members knocked the constable to the ground. They bandaged his left hand, hit by Ellen, and he went on his way. However, he claimed the family all had guns except Ellen and one of them shot him. Ellen was arrested (and had to take her baby), as were Ned’s brother-in-law and an associate, and all three were later gaoled for attempted murder. Dan could not be found, and it was claimed Ned was interstate, in New South Wales, at the time of the incident. The judge stated he would have given Ned 15 years had he been present at court. The pair remained in hiding and were later joined by a couple of friends, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart.

A police sergeant and three constables searched for the Kellys in October 1878. When two of the policemen shot at some birds, the brothers were hiding only a mile away and went to investigate. They ordered the police to surrender. Ned shot one dead when the constable raised his gun at him and killed another policeman in similar circumstances. He fatally wounded a third constable in a gunfight. The Victorian Parliament quickly passed the Felons Apprehension Act 1878, outlawing the Kelly gang, as the brothers and their friends had come to be known. The Act stated there was no need for arrests or a trial and that anyone could simply shoot them as they were outlaws.

The gang robbed two banks, firstly at Euroa in Victoria in December 1878, and then at Jerilderie in New South Wales in February 1879, using hostages. None was harmed. They stole over $4,000 on each occasion, equivalent to several hundred thousand dollars today. Each state government offered a reward of $8,000 for their capture. The Kelly gang lay low and nothing was heard of them between March 1879 and June 1880.

A few days after the Euroa robbery, Kelly wrote to a member of the Victorian Parliament about his grievances. In February 1879, he dictated a 7,000 word letter, the so-called Jerilderie letter, to friend Joe Byrne, describing the harsh treatment of him and his family by the police, as well as the poor treatment of Irish Catholics and leniency shown to Protestants. Neither letter was made public.

On the same day that the Felons Apprehension Act expired, 26 June 1880, Dan Kelly and Joe Byrne killed police informer Aaron Sherritt. But he had been set up by police as a traitor in their attempt to find the Kelly gang. Four constables had been living with Sherritt at the time of his murder and were at the house hiding under a bed. They didn’t report the crime until next day as they knew the gang had plans to derail a train at Victorian town Glenrowan early on 28 June and that would amount to even more evidence against them.

The gang took about 70 hostages at the Glenrowan Inn on 27 June and ordered them to pull up rail tracks to derail a train carrying police reinforcements. The four gang members each had a suit of armour weighing 44 kilograms (96 pounds) made of plough mouldboards, as well as a helmet, and a large coat to cover the armour. But a hostage convinced Ned Kelly to let him go and in the predawn he waved a lantern covered in a red scarf as the train approached. It stopped and police sieged the inn at dawn on 28 June.

A gun battle commenced, although it is unsure which side started it. Ned Kelly was hit in the foot and the left arm at a range of 30 metres (about 100 feet). He advanced, returning fire. When 15 metres from the police, he was hit a number of times in the legs, which were unprotected by the armour, and fell to the ground. Other gang members, Dan Kelly, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart, died inside the hotel.

Ned Kelly was tried before Justice Redmond Barry, an Irish-born Protestant, the same judge who had sent his mother Ellen to gaol (she was still there) and had stated he would have sent Ned there for 15 years had he been in court. The case is famous for its exchanges between judge and prisoner. After Barry sentenced him to death and stated the customary line: “May God have mercy on your soul”, Kelly said: “I will go a little further than that, and say I will see you there when I go”. Kelly was hanged at Melbourne Gaol on 11 November 1880. Ironically, Barry died 12 days later of an infection from a carbuncle on his neck.